Eurovision Song Contest 2007
The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 26th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Malmo, Sweden, following Sweden's win in the 2006 Contest. It was won by singer Emeli Sande from the United Kingdom with the song "My Kind of Love". The two semi-finals were held on 15 and 17 May 2007, and the final was held on 19 May 2007. Forty-four countries announced their participation in the contest, a new record, with Montenegro debuting and Armenia returning. The runners-up were Cyprus, which finished second (the country's best placing to date), and Azerbaijan, which finished third. They were followed by Romania, which finished in 4th place. Armenia achieved its first Top 5 placing, finishing in 5th place. This edition was won by a "Big 5" member, the United Kingdom, this is the first time a "Big 5" member has won the contest (even though other current "Big 5" members have won the contest in the past, the "Big 5" was created in 2002, therefore omitting previous winners). The other members did not do so well, with all of them falling outside the top 10, with Germany in 13th, France in 17th, Italy in 20th and Spain in 21st position. Location The venue for the 2007 Contest was the Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden. On the night of the win, SVT's CEO Eva Hamilton stated to local press that due to the fact that the new Friends Arena which is currently being constructed in Stockholm will be unavailable and unfinished by the date required, the Ericsson Globe Arena will once again be one of the contenders for hosting. The other two areas are Gothenburg and Malmo. On 1 June 2006, SVT and the EBU announced that the Malmo Arena in Malmo would be used to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. Format In a meeting of the Eurovision Reference Group on 25 April 2006, it was decided that the voting lines will not open until all the participants had performed, in both the semi-finals and Grand Final. There was a 15 minute "voting window". Also the number of participants rose from 43 in the 2006 contest to a new record of 44 participants as Armenia returned and Montenegro debuted. Many journalists criticised this as the countries now have a very slim chance of qualifying from the semi-finals. Controversies The new 15 minute "voting window" caused controversy when in the grand final, the majority of the early entries between 1 and 13 were in the bottom half of the scoreboard (however Azerbaijan did end in 3rd place and Albania finished in 6th). When officials added up the number of points from countries that performed in positions 1-13 and countries that performed in positions 14-26, the first half of the Grand Final recieved 956 points, while the second half recieved 1,607 points, a significant difference of 651. However SVT and the EBU declared this a co-incidence and similar occurences had happened in previous contests, but this may cause the 2008 host broadcaster BBC to revert back to voting when the final begins. Another controversy was Croatia in Semi-Final 2. When EBU went to count the votes they realised that many members of the Croatian public voted for their own country, with the telephone providers refusing to remove the votes. So this was the reason for the delay in counting the votes on the night of Semi-Final 2. Once the illegal votes had been removed, the results could be revealed. The EBU announced on the following day that the implications did not change the outcome of the semi-final. Participating countries 'Semi-final 1' Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom voted in this semi-final. 'Semi-final 2' France, Germany and Italy voted in this semi-final. Croatia's televotes were re-counted and evaluated as illegal voting had occured, however the changes did not affect the outcome of the semi final. Arsenium feat. Natalia Gordienko and Connect-R 'Final'ists 'Split jury/televoting results' '12 points' Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the final: Marcel Bezençon Awards Returning artists